This relates generally to electronic devices and, more particularly, to electronic devices with displays.
Electronic devices often include displays. For example, cellular telephones, computers, and televisions have displays.
The center of a display such as a liquid crystal display contains an array of pixels. This portion of the display, which is sometimes referred to as the active area of the display, is used to display images to a user. Peripheral circuits and other portions of the display that do not display images form a border that surrounds the inactive area. This border is sometimes referred to as the inactive area of the display.
To ensure that a display has an appealing appearance, it is generally desirable to hide internal components such as signal traces and other structures in the inactive area from view by the user. Accordingly, displays are often provided with plastic bezel structures that overlap the internal components in the inactive region. Bezel structures can be bulky and unsightly, so some displays are provided with a black ink border. The black ink border can be printed on the underside of a protective cover glass layer within the inactive area. The black ink border is thinner than a plastic bezel and helps hide internal display components in the inactive area of the display from view by the user.
Use of a display cover layer can introduce undesirable thickness and weight into a display. Some displays therefore dispense with the display cover layer and instead ensure that other display layers such as a color filter layer are sufficiently thick to provide the display with desired structural integrity. Black ink in this type of display may be incorporated under an upper polarizer layer in the inactive area of the display.
This type of arrangement poses challenges due to the presence of the polarizer. The polarizer reduces light transmission by half, resulting in reduced light reflection from the ink in the inactive area. If care is not taken, the border to have an unsightly appearance. For example, a white ink border would have an unsightly gray appearance rather than a desired white appearance.
As displays are manufactured and tested, it may be desirable to laser engrave an identifier within the border of the display. The identifier may be used to identify the display in the event that the display is later serviced. In some devices, there may be insufficient room available to engrave an identifier into the display or it may not be practical to form the identifier in an accessible location. These challenges may make it difficult to label a display with an identifier.
It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide electronic devices with improved display structures such as improved border masking structures and identifiers.